Extra Capacity: 6 Ways To Work Well With Remote Teams
It’s no secret that using offshore developers and remote teams is a cost-effective way for software companies to add extra capacity and accelerate production. Not only does it help reduce overheads, it also opens up a global IT talent pool.
The beauty of adding capacity with a remote team is that you have none of the costs associated with attracting, recruiting, and retaining in-house talent. At the same time, you get ready-to-code developers with exactly the right skills and expertise needed to make your software a success.
But, you probably already knew that. Bringing in offshore developers is a given. What you really need to know is how to work well with your remote team – and how to get the best out of them.
1. Asynchronous Development
Remote teams existed pre-pandemic, but the situation undoubtedly helped to accelerate adoption of sustainable, long-term remote working.
Across multiple industries, hybrid working is now common, with employees splitting their time between home and the office. Proven remote working practices have shown that effective communication and productivity are no longer the concerns they once were.
Agile software development is a great fit for remote working access time zones. That’s because by carefully aligning sprint cycles, development can take place 24/7 – something to think about if you’re looking to reduce the time to market.
2. An Agile Delivery Model
When you bring in a remote development team, you’re not just getting a resource. Self-managed teams come with prior experience and a tried and tested working process. Agile delivery models give you exactly that – more flexible and adaptive development opportunities.
Different teams take care of different parts of the SaaS or software product. For example, some companies already have their own developers in place. When an offshore development team is brought in, it can then handle a specific area of development. This means integration and alignment is much easier to achieve – as long as your business goals are clearly shared and understood.
For other businesses – typically start-up SaaS – remote developers can also create capacity by joining existing teams. Using a buddy system is a great way to get remote workers up to speed on company culture, relevant business information, and make them feel part of a current engineering team.
3. Managed Teams as a Service
Every company has different needs, but there’s much to be said for bringing in a hand-picked remote team, over multiple, individual outsourced developers.
For starters, it can help make working well with your remote developers much more straightforward. With individuals, you have to take control of each individual’s performance – as you would with employees. Managed teams manage themselves, under your direction. The Scrum Master takes the responsibility for alignment with your Product Owner, and helps to optimise the team’s performance.
Put simply, an Agile delivery model includes planning, refinement, and delivery, and eliminates micromanagement. There’s also no need for the HR functionality typically needed to onboard your own employees. The other advantage with remote Teams as a Service, is that it can scale with your needs. This model allows you to add extra capacity without you having to source, recruit, and onboard additional talent. It’s taken care of on your behalf, at a significant saving in both time and cost.
4. Skills aligned with challenges
It goes without saying that when you bring in a team of offshore developers, they need to have the right skills for your development needs. Hiring a team puts the responsibility on your chosen offshore development company to select the most suitably qualified team members.
Matching the right skills is one thing. It’s also important that they understand what the real challenges are behind your need to add extra capacity. This can also provide vital clues as to the right solution for your challenges. The best solution is not just about having the correct coding skills and experience, it’s also about understanding the business case. If the remote team understands the business case, it gives their work meaning, and enables them to see how it fits into the bigger picture – and you’ll get a better product.
Of course, it is possible to build software without the right expertise. Companies sometimes look to low-code solutions for faster iteration. For generic applications, like a company Intranet, that’s a viable route. But for successful software and SaaS, it’s not always a viable option to pick and choose from ready-made components to create something new. When you need something unique and bespoke, that’s when remote development teams can help.
5. Robust recruitment methods
Hiring a team of remote developers means you can step aside from hiring duties, but that doesn’t mean compromising on quality or settling for second best. One thing you should check is the hiring statistics of your offshore software development company. How quickly can they source and onboard new teams? How broad and deep is their talent pool?
At Proshore we can connect your business with thousands of highly-skilled IT professionals living in Nepal. In the last two quarters, we’ve doubled the number of applicants to open positions, and we’ve also reduced our average time to hire from over 90 days to less than 20 days. That’s because we have a wealth of available talent on our database, with a steady talent pipeline of new recruits from our boot camps. See our solutions.
6. An agreed upfront fee
Let’s face it, when you’re hiring in-house, sourcing, recruiting, and retaining the best tech talent is expensive and time-consuming. With remote development teams as a service, this cost can be dramatically reduced, whilst at the same time giving you extra-capacity and improving your output.
Before you sign an agreement, make sure the costs are clear. This gives you peace of mind and cost certainty going forward. Find out how much you could save by using our handy cost calculator.
Final thoughts on adding Extra Capacity
Modern software companies are free from the limitations of working out of a single location. They can pick and choose from the best IT talent spread all over the world. But being spread out doesn’t mean being spread thin. Rather than viewing time zones as a limitation, working with a remote global workforce facilitates 24/7 operations, and accelerates development time.
With a managed team of remote developers from Proshore – whether you need one person or an entire Agile team – you can add extra capacity at speed. There’s no need to incur the costs of hiring in-house, and no need for the complexities of traditional HR functionality – everything you need is available for a pre-agreed and cost-effective fee.
With Proshore you get:
- A growing talent pool of 3,000 developers – screened, assessed, and ready to code.
- Commitment to the delivery of your product and the delivery process.
- Experienced Agile teams who work closely with your Product Owner.
Looking to add extra-capacity and speed up the time to market of your software product? Book a discovery call with Proshore.
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